Ciaphas Cain-The Last Cup
by gameboy5432
Summary: The 41st Millenium is coming to an end, the 13th Black Crusade is at it's peak,countless worlds destroyed, by the Great Enemy, The Orks run rampant, the Tau have expanded, The Eldar are attacking, the Necrons are awakening, the Golden Throne is breaking down, and our favorite commisar drinks his last cup of tanna, as his final adventure unfolds
1. Chapter 1

My dear readers, it comes with a heavy heart that, I must inform you, that this is the last extract of the Cain Archives, and though there are many stories which remain untold, that chronologically happen before the events describe here, this is the final section of the Cain Archives, and I feel that the time for this particular tale to be released, to the public, or rather the other members of the inquisition, has arrived.

This, ladies and gentleman is Cain Last Adventure.

Amberley Vail; Ordo Xenos.

After the whole Perlia, debacle, which involved, that mustached midget Waran, I can honestly say, that I thought my adventures over, and my well deserved and hard earned retirement could continue unimpeded, by orks, elder, tau, necrons, ruinous powers, you know all those little things which seem to have the bad habit of trying to chop me up.

But despite the more than two centuries of wisdom and knowledge I've accumulated, telling me that the likelihood of that will not happened, I after a lifetime of lies and deceits managed the greatest feat any trickster could pull, and that I fooled myself into thinking so.

That misconception, would not last, since a few weeks after the whole Shadowlight-Necron-Waran jambalaya, and even bigger one appeared, in the form of what we call the 13th Black Crusade.

And I am sorry to say that things look grim, and coming from me, that says a lot.

But there was one small thing which I thanked his Divine Majesty everyday for, and namely my old age, or rather managing to reach it, and that it gave me the excuse of saying that I don't want to steal the glory from the younger ones, by charging head first, brains last into the toughest of the battles, like my undeserved reputation demands of me.

But with the Black Crusade turning the galaxy into ashes, I decided that I'd better get myself a commission into some safe positions, with no chance of me getting sent by some idiot bureaucrat or general who thinks I want to be at the field, where the main harvest is dead corpses and corrupted souls.

But to my apparent lack of fortune, my ill gotten reputation was by now was so great, that the position I desired was considered so beneath me, that the officials I went to get it, even refused to consider to say, it.

And so I sat there on Perlia, with Jurgen, passing the days in well hidden despair, since, from my long and inglorious career , I've deduced that the safest place in a war, or rather the safest you can be, is on a ships, where it's much easier to run, as I've so often done over the centuries.

My other reason for not wanting to stay on a planet is that I seem to have the bad habit of always landing of the planet where the fighting is most fierce, and most absurdly dangerous.

Refineries with necron tombs beneath the, cities built on dormant Tyranid hive ships, systems with the war for their defense over with space hulks suddenly popping into them, forge worlds who breed genestealers, and my personal favorite Perlia, who not only has orks, forces of chaos, and necrons but if you chose to play the bonus round, of what depraved monstrosity can appear here, you just might win Emperor knows what nightmarish invasion, or potentially galaxy spawning genocide artifact from this mudball as a prize!

So I think it's safe to say that me and planets are a no no!

"We're living dark days, wouldn't you agree Jurgen?"

"Not so much during, the summer on this planet" Jurgen phlegmatically replied, not getting the meaning of my question, as he was polishing his prized melta, which had served him faithfully all these decades.

But I've grown accustomed to my aides level of intelligence by then, so I didn't press the issue, merely changed it.

"Word has it that Abadon, set his sights on Cadia, and there's a battle going on over there."

"The Guard and the Navy will see him off, after all the Emperor protects" Jurgen replied, unfazed by the danger the leader of the Forces of Chaos posed.

"Let's hope so, I can't imagine what we would do, if he got past our forces" I asked.

Jurgen said nothing, only pulled out a pair of battery packs, one for my melta, and one for my chainsword.

"And if that's not enough?" I asked with a smile on my lips.

Jurgen merely shrugged and took out a second pair of battery packs from one of his many pouches.

At this I just laughed and shock my head, my inglorious career would almost seem to indicate that, a spare pack of power cells, along with me and Jurgen, was all it took to stops anything our enemies could throw at us, which I knew of course was an unemperorly absurd idea.*

_*Like always Cain often views his own accomplishments as minor and without impact, forgetting the fact, that at this stage in his life, he is ranked by many with heroes like Commissar Yarick of Ibraham Gaunt, and on par with many other heroes of the Imperium, if not downright surpassing them._

Just then as I laughed at the absurd situation, the communication device in my ear, suddenly flared to life and a message from that someone at the star port wanted to see, me had come through.

The message also said that it was a priority zero class, communication, the highest security rank in the Empire, and despite knowing what these things often entail, I had no good excuse to avoid it and so I went to see whatever new inventive way of trying to turn me into human Swiss cheese, this mysterious someone could come up with.

As I reached the starport and boarded the unfamiliar docked ship, I was surprised to find Orelius, as the one who summoned me.

"Good day Commissar, you look well, especially after the Chaos invasion this world faced and you're vanquishing of it" Orelius told me, and I noticed that the room we where it was full up to the absurd with scented candles, and air conditioning running on overtime, in earnest preparation for Jurgen's presence, and I could not blame him, despite my becoming accustomed to the smell over the years, or at least enough so that I didn't have to run towards the nearest window for air every time I was with him.

"Just doing my duty as a soldier" I replied, that being the response a man of my unmerited reputation would use, but I must confess that after all these years of lying trough my teeth, and repeating that phrase, I had noticed that the words, despite coming reluctantly with hesitance and a very subtly hind of falseness in them which I like to think only I could perceive *, I had noticed that as time went by, the words came out smoother, more relaxed and with more naturalness in them, so much so that at this point I have to wonder, if the phrase I just said really is a lie.

_*And Orks like to have tea parties, with Valhalans for fun!_

"Of course, but I'm afraid I don't have time for pleasantries, I have a very urgent assignment and I require you're assistance" Orelius said and activated a map.

"I'll help if I can" which meant actually meant 'frak off and do it yourself', but there are few people who are as cunning a linguist as myself, so what are you gonna do?

"Our forces are preparing for a counterattack, to relive Cadia, of Abadon's siege"

"In order to do that, we require more firepower, but unfortunately we do not have the necessary means to supply our fleet for that, but this plan if successful could be the decisive factor" he said and after pressing a few icons, a holographic display of a mysterious device appeared before us.

"We will need every lass pistol power cell and boltershot we have to be sent to the fleet and guard there" I said and Orelius nodded in agreement, which was generally a bad sign and presented my his proposal.

"This is the horn of bounty, one of the last remaining relics created by the Emperor himself, before his death that still functions" he said as I made the sign of the Aquila at the mentioning of that great tragedy.

"The horn is a device which can covert massive amount of fecal matter into food, supplying the Guard and fleet with almost 60% of the Imperial ration bars" Orelius replied which made my eyes bug out, that contraception was the reason for the tortures taste of "Soylens Viridians" bars, I always made disparaging comments and comparisons, about their taste, but never thought I'd be so close to the actual truth.

"Sounds like a very essential machine" I said and that was the truth, I may not like those blasted things, but with so many raids by xenos forces on our territory, crops are sometimes hard, almost impossible to get to to the troops, so that machine was in my opinion the most holly of all the Emperor's divine creations.

"Quite so, and here is what we plan to do, since almost 80% of our forces ore on Cadia, we will move that machine there, to directly supply our troops with food, this will not only help us logistically, but will also increase our ability to supply our warriors with ammunition, weapons and fresh troops, by almost 80%" Orelius replied.

I let out a whistle of amazement, which was more genuine than false, the plan was bold, and could work, and knowing Orelius and looking back on my carrier I could guess what he wanted from me.

"But, you need someone to get it there, someone who is good with thought covert operations like this" I asked and Orelius confirmed my suspicions.

"You're time helping Lady Amberley, and you're military service, make you the prime candidate for this job, so I ask of your help with this mission" which in reality, when a servant of the inquisition said that in mean, 'do this or I'll have you shot', but I decided to not bring that up.

And honestly the prospect was not so bad, I generally knew, with things as they are I would be sent to that hellhole anyway, Black Crusades have a tendency to do that to you, and a few weeks sneaking around the Imperium instead of going directly to battle, was very appealing to my health, and don't forget I'm an old man by this point, so it's not that unreasonable of me to avoid battle.

"Alright Orelius, you have your mission commander, I bit boring for my tastes, but I'll do it" I said cheerfully" confident that I could avoid the front lines for a few weeks, but if I've known then what my odyssey would entail too, I would have taken the first ship to Cadia, and on my own charged the traitor Legions with nothing but a pencil and small trumpet.

A few days later, I boarded the craft, which carried the horn of bounty, there it's was an old seasoned admiral, a military veteran like me, who was also pulled out of retirement to command our little expedition, along with and regimental colonel to command the ships security detail who was also a veteran, both looked like they knew what they

"Ciaphas Cain, and this is my aide Gunner First class Jurgen " I said introducing myself, giving a salute.

"Admiral Horatio Bugler" His Divine Majesties, Imperial Navy.

"Colonel Richard Shrewd, Of the 950th south exe regiment"

They both said and saluted, and to my astoundment they did the same for Jurgen, shaking his hand, and apparently they where bothered by his smell, but where professional enough to not allow it to show it, I guess sometimes miracles do happen.

"You're reputation precedes you commissar" Horatio said to me.

"As does the reputation of the two if you" which meant that I did not know a damn about them, but the fact that they were here selected for a top covert mission, spoke volumes of it.

"Gentlemen shall we proceed then?" I asked.

"Of course, pilot, take us into orbit and to plot our course, baring 013, heading 228" Horatio said to the aforementioned pilot and after a few minutes, trough the atmosphere, which did not sit well with Jurgen we were on our way to the warp entry point.

"What's are course Admiral?" Richard asked him.

"Since this mission is of such high value, we will have to adopt the most erratic and unlikely route through the Imperium so as to not reveal our intentions to the enemies spies" he replied.

"Playing it safe is fine with me, what's our fist destination?" I asked with a false air of disappointment in my voice at the lack of combat, which was expected of me and seemed to convince my travel companions.

"Safest place in the current war commissar,

the Scarus Sector" Horatio replied with a smile, which myself and Richard replied with a smile as well , what's the worst that could happen there I thought, if I only knew just what a nightmare I'd have to go through, just to reach the damned 13th Black Crusade main force, which was another nightmare of equal proportions, I would have made a public confession of all my scoundrels secrets and lifetime of cowardly behavior and heroically avoiding battle and ould have taken my chances with the firing squad there and then.

""

_Like the great storm of the Heresy, the forces of the True Gods will descend upon the False Emperor's minions. The stars will tremble at their passage, the mighty armadas of the Warmasters will bring annihilation to a hundred worlds. Great shall be the slaughter, most pleasing shall be the flow of blood. The fools who follow the Emperor will be brought low, forced to their knees amidst the corpses of their families and friends. The thrice-cursed one shall become as a living god, the power to destroy the Weakling Emperor shall be within his grasp. Know this, for these things will come to pass and the galaxy itself will be the spoils of victory"_

Constanze the Prophetess, burned as a Heretic, 356.M38


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter II**

The warp winds here were favorable, as we made our way to the Scarus Sector, and I passed the time in my usual way of drinking and gambling with Horatio and Richard, they seemed not bothered, by my position as a commissar and my ability to have them shot if need, be which indicated that they had reached career points so great, that they were probably immune from any potential prosecution from the Commissariat.

That was a pleasant surprise for me, and allowed me the chance to actually socialize with them, the fact that they were also experienced gamblers, made things interesting, not for my wallet of course, and I would have preferred, more less seasoned players, but I must admit, that it was fun to have a real challenge for once in a while, also the extra brainpower required for such a match, was a welcome distraction from my itchy palms, and although I generally trusted my sense of paranoia let's face it.

I'm on a secret mission for the Inquisition, carrying the last working artifact of the Emperor, to the focus point of the latest Black Crusade, where depending of the outcome of our little venture we could win or lose against Chaos, just knowing about this mission would, under normal circumstance would be enough to have me killed years ago*, and only my undeserved reputation was keeping me alive, that and I suspect my very close and private association with Amberley**

*_Not true, the Inquisition does not kill humans for the simple fact of knowing classified information, well not always_

**_Despite what that would entail, Cain and his compatriots was chosen by this mission from a joint comity of all the highest ranking authorities in the Imperium, and I must admit despite my preference for the man and Jurgen, he would have never gotten this mission without the approval of the other heads of power._

We were all enjoying our sixth or seventh round, when a great headache struck me, and I palmed my forehead in an attempt to relieve it of the pain.

"You alright Ciaphas?" Horatio asked me.

"Fine, I've just been having headaches since we began this journey all those weeks ago" I replied and took another sip of amasec.

"Don't let it get you down, the way I see it, if a headache is all you'll have to worry on this mission, then I'd say huzah! " Richard replied and filled his goblet.

"Hear! Hear!, a toast to little pains, may they never get big!" Horatio said and raised his goblet.

We all did the same and emptied our glasses, I was a little apprehensive, about tempting faith, but in my years of experience, things get worse regardless of what you say, so you may as well.

A few rounds latter, when I seemed to be finally on the verge of winning the pot, an aroma off sox so dirty and germ infested they could be classified and sentient, came into the room, alerting me t o the presence of my aide.

"Scuze me sir, but the pilot says that we're about to exit the warp, and enter the Scarus Sector" Jurgen replied and I silently cursed my luck since, that meant rising from the table, just before my victory.

"Thank you Jurgen, gentleman shall we?" I said and they nodded, and we left, but not before I took a mournful look at the card table, though if I knew then, what we would get into as we entered the Scarus Sector, I would have forfeited all of the money, and every single other match for the duration of our journey.

We entered regular space, and for a few hours everything seemed quite tame, until a warp signature was picked up by our sensors, and a massive Ork Fleet materialized right in front of us.

"Emperor on Earth!" I said and made the sign of the Aquila, as Ork missiles were hurled against us.

"Move over man!" Horatio said as he quickly took the pilot controls, I've heard of things like this happening before but I've never been in a fleet battle so desperate that the captain had to take direct control of the ship, at least not recently, and calling our situation here desperate was an understatement.

"What are you doing!" I said as to my utter horror Horatio instead of turning around, he charged the enemy Fleet, I thought there and then that our situation couldn't get any worse, until he adjusted the course trough the Ork Fleet right in the path of the biggest Ork ship.

The extreme maneuver, combined, with the dogging maneuvers from ork missile and laser fire, made our ship vibrate, like cocktail shaker, which was no help to poor Jurgen.

Our ships, was on a direct course with what appeared to the Flagship cannons, and just as I thought that I was about to stand before the Golden Throne, from our crazy boat boy's kamikaze attack, when he at the last possible moment, turned to the right of the cannons, barely avoiding their fire and went around the ork ships so close, that our hulls touched, and an infernal screech was heard, , as the two surface scratched each other, we also felt something hit the ship, but the screech was too distracting for us to worry about it now, and as terrifying and potentially fatal it was, it passed, and we where clear of the ship.

As I gazed at the Ork Armada, as it turned around to pursue us, I noticed that no pursuit fire was being launched.

"Orks don't have any ships that can of fire backwards, since they; always charge forwards at the enemy, they have to bring their ships around, also the bigger the ork ships, the slower it is to shoot and target" Horatio said to me.

"So the best way to avoid them, if they're too close, is to run right through them" I said and felt the need to practice boxing using Horatio's head, for his maneuver, since it reminded me of my first time on Perlia, which I had done the same to get to safety and couldn't fault his reasoning, especially since I didn't know a fly or fish's worth of anything about naval combat, so I said nothing as we headed towards the nearest exit point from this system, the ork fleet seemingly running to pursue.

"Hey lads, I hate to interrupt, but I think we have a wee problem" the voice of Richard in my com-bead said and I realized that he must have gone to patrol the ship I case it was boarded.

"What kind of problem?" I asked.

Only for the reply to come in the form of Richard, being thrown through the bridges entrance way, by the aforementioned problem.

"That kind of problem!" he said and pointed to the biggest, badest Ork I have ever saw in my life, bigger than the one I slayed on Perlia, I'd say at least three times.

He charged trough the corridor, with a great scream of WAARRGGHHHHHHHHHH!, and burtsed into the control room, we all drew our chain swords, but that things charge was so great that with a few blows, which if not for our combined years of combat experience we would have not survived, the three of us where thrown all over the bridge.

The feral monstrosity then set its sight on Jurgen, he tried to bring his melta to get a shot, but with great speed, which was uncharacteristic for an ork of its size, it grabbed Jurgen, with its massive hands before he could fire and rammed him against the ships wall.

It then let out a great roar right into Jurgen's face, and poor Jurgen after years of painful flying, and that hellish ordeal with dodging the fleet finely gave in, and vomited all of the contents' of his stomach, right into the things opened mouth.

It dropped Jurgen and lurched back, from this disgusting shock and that's what all Jurgen needed, for as he was dropped to the ground the fired his melta right into its face, and with reflexes typical of his Valhalan heritage of ork slayer supreme, he dodged it's attempts to hit him again.

Seeing that the Ork, was somehow still alive, and distracted by Jurgen, I took the opportunity to charge it from behind, my chest hurt like hell and I was confident that I had a few broken ribs and internal bleeding from the damn things attacks, but this was not the first time I fought a hard battle, so I ignored the pain and charged the green monstrosity.

To my left and right Horatio and Richard, had also gotten the same idea, so here we where Horatio Bugler, Richard Shrewd and Ciaphas Cain all facing the Empires enemies as one unit.

Richard and Horatio both went for the back knee joints of its legs, while it dived between it's legs, and trusted my chainsword, right into the enemies scrotum; an ork's was week at its back, since even when they retreated they always kept their fronts to the enemy, and since that area also had to be clear for a rather obvious biological function, I penetrated the ork with ease.

I then trusted forward, and my sword then went upwards trough his chest, turning his insides into mush.

The Ork, collapsed backwards, now legless and with my sword sticking out of its chest, but this being an ork, the injuries were of almost no importance to him, and he was still a threat and he continued to strike wildly at us, I drew my lasspistol, and fire a few rounds into its head without much effect, until both Richard and Horatio, ducked a simultaneous blow from both the creatures arms, moved forward and they both slashed at the creatures elbow joints, severing them.

The final blow came from Jurgen who then charged forward, stuffed his melta into the ork's roaring mouth and fired, reducing its head to ash.

"Well that was fun." I said sarcastically as we all shared a good laugh.

"Oy, comm's officer, send a cleanup crew down to sector five, as I bagged a couple of orks down, there before, I found big ugly" Richard said to the aforementioned officer.

"A couple of orks? How many did you meet?" Horatio asked.

"I think maybe, six or seven" Richard replied unsure of the exact number.

"Well why didn't you call for backup?" I asked.

"Didn't have enough time, and when I could, I already killed them,then mister jolly green giant appeared and you know the rest" Richard replied like he was talking about drinking some tea.

"We'll I suggest we leave this system, before any more guests arrive on board, takes us out pilot" Horatio said to our ships driver, and we all entered the warp, just barely missing another volley of fire from the Ork Fleet which had finally turned and come about.

The danger appeared to be all but passes, but after seeing Jurgen inspect the ork, and the worried expression he had on his face, shattered that illusion.

"This ork was the warboss sir, that warband will chase us, until they catch us" he said to me, and was overheard by everyone else on the bridge.

"Well, if we broadcast his death that should be enough to break they're unity, right?" I asked hopefully.

"That out to do it" Jurgen said as he retrieved a flask of Tanna from his pockets and with a grubby arm presented it to me, and I took it gratefully.

"I'm afraid we can't do that sir?" an sailor who appeared to be the chief engineer said to me.

"And may I ask why?" I said, carefully masking the growing sense of dread I had inside me.

"That,, hit we felt when the our ship was scratching the ork one, took out our communications array for good, there's no way for us to send transmissions, it'll take at least two weeks to fix it" he replied.

And once more, whatever had made it his personal assignment to make sure my life always goes from bad to worse, succeeded once more.

After a few curse words uttered by almost every crew member of the ship, a thorough cleansing of the ship, some much needed medical attention and a strategy meeting, to decide what to do of this menace, I finally managed to get some shut eye.

A few hours later I was awaken by the aroma, of unwashed socks once more, and Jurgen informed me that we were entering the system, the one good thing about our ship, was that since it was fast, there was no way the orks could catch us, if we where careful with our flight course trough the systems, and if we avoided trouble, but the itching of my palms was a grim warning sing for me, as to what awaited us in the next system.

"Admiral, we are detecting another fleet within the system, identifying it as…Emperor of Earth it's a Tyranid Hive Fleet!" the radar officer reported.

"Should we invite the Eldar or the Tau to join our merry jamboree?" I said to those present on the bridge, the action of laughing in the face of danger was expected of me.

"I'm afraid we don't have enough drinks for them" Horatio said with a chuckle.

"Still I think it's safe to say,that we can't be stealthy anymore, pilot, have all unnecessary weight dropped from the ship, food, furniture, everything which might slow us down" Horatio ordered.

"Even the life pods sir?" the officer asked, and I was tempted to protest, but considering the massive green plague, behind us, and the Tyranid Fleet which was reacting to it and began to turn towards us, life pods where pretty much useless, so I kept my mouth shut and we kept moving forward, this time in a direct line to the Black Crusade, all the while with orks and Tyranids on our backs.

"One last thing, start transmitting a broadcast for help, priority zero, to every system we pass, with the Great Enemy situated at our destination, and these things on our backs, we will need every bit of help we can get" I said and Horatio nodded in approval and did just that.

"At this point, I'm not even surprised at my situation" I muttered to myself, and asked Jurgen for some more tanna, and as I drank it an idea popped into my head, it was crazy and very risky, but if pulled off, then maybe, just maybe, things would turn out alright, or as alright as they usually turn out for me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter III**

As per Cain's usual disregard, for events of which he is not present, I once more need to look for other means of which to paint the overall picture of the war effort during the 13th Black Crusade.

And once more beloved readers, although it is not my intention to cause you pain, but it is necessary for me to use the writing of General Sulla, so get your painkillers, and mental health drugs and just try and push on.

_Extract From : The Vanquishing of the Eternal Night, by Lady General Jenit Sulla, (retired) 097.M42_

_There are times, when I wished for my days as a simple officer under Colonel Kasten and Major Broklav , and no more so, was when the 13__th__ Black Crusade arrived at our doorsteps._

_I had heard and studied the other 12 before hand, but no amount of research could have prepared us, for the sheer magnitude of carnage and destructive power, our most while and blasphemous foes unleashed on the Emperor's domain._

_As the tides of Chaos hit the shores of the Imperium, the wile and traitorous xenos, also decided to pounce like some sick, and twisted parody of a jungle predator._

_The enemy unleashed, a tide of darkness, of unspeakable, of indescribable horror, that even thought myself and every other guardsman and sailor, where seasoned veterans, and fully aware that the Emperor protects, we could not help, but flinch, and even feel a great deal of apprehension of what we saw._

_Massive enemy fleets, a ship which could turn planets to ashes, Giant Warp Fortresses, and that was only the beginning of the Darkness._

_I saw Eldar Forces, one of the most foulest of our foes, go and attack the Forces of Chaos, only to run, I saw the mysterious Necron armies, attack two massive Blackstone Fortresses, only for their seemingly immortal and invincible armies to be repulsed._

_In between battles, not even rest and the prospect of sleep bought us comfort, for without a fight, we had to face the reality of messages of Orks, and Tau Forces preying on the vulnerable areas of the Imperium, filling our souls with the taint of guilt, what was even worse was the fact that as a high ranking General I had access to classified intelligence reports, and I learned that the Eldar Webway, was also invaded by chaos, what was even worse where the reports, from our spies infiltrated in the ranks of the abominable creatures that told us, the fabled Black Library itself, was in danger of falling to the Forces of Chaos._

_The night was becoming even darker, for just as we vanquished the enemy flotilla, and seemingly trapping Abaddon's forces, a huge warp signature was detected by our forces, and a second Chaos Fleet emerged from the Eye of Terror, even bigger than the one we faced before, it was accompanied by what appeared to be at least seven if not more of the deadly Blackstone Fortresses_

_I was astounded, how could such a vile taint suddenly emerge from nowhere, then it dawn on me, for I remembered from my long career, that even our own forces where sometimes divided by the lack of a proper authority figure, and sometimes, the one who was in charge, was the one who had the most military success._

_Something like this, the Fall of Cadia has never happened before, this stalemate, was a good enough victory for Abaddon to finally have enough power to truly unite the forces of Chaos, the forces joining him, being convinced by his occupation of Cadia, to pledge their allegiance a and he could now bring them to bare on the Imperium, making this a true Black Crusade, perhaps the first to be unleashed, and during those moment it seemed like it would be the last._

_So we braced ourselves for the inevitable, convinced that today was the day we would stand before the Golden Throne, and muttered to myself what I thought would be the last time the phrase 'What would Commissar Cain do', wishing that he was here, for I had no doubt that his tactical and strategic brilliance, his masterful skill of combat and diplomacy, would no doubt be the doom of our foes, but alas he was not here, and I greatly missed his presence._

_I continued to try to think of ways to give us a fighting chance, but as the enemy fleet got close, I realized that this would be the end, so as we all braced for our last stand, an occurrence I would have never believed possible happened._

_From the portside of our fleet, a second warp portal emerged, from it a lone ships, of strange design, but obviously built for speed and stealth exited, what followed took us by shock, was that a moment later, after this ship appeared, a massive Ork Fleet, came from the very same warp point._

_I thought things could only get worse, only to see a massive Tyranid Hive Fleet emerge after the Ork one, and bear in mind these where no mere Ork and Tyranid Fleets, they where 'THE' Ork and Tyranid Fleets, so huge that combined with the massive Great Enemy force before us, the blackness of space became for a few minutes a carpet of red, crimson and purple._

_The mysterious ship, then charged the Chaos Forces, followed closely by the Orks and Hive Fleet, and in what I can only describe as insane bravery and amazing piloting the ships somehow managed to pass through the Chaos Fleet intact, and on doing so made the Orks and Tyranid which were chasing them clash with the Chaos fleet and a strange three way battle began._

_You can imagine the sheer chorus line, of gapped mouths which appeared on every face of his majesties loyal servants, at this divine miracle._

_But that was not the end, a second warp portal opened from where the mysterious ship appeared, and from is two space Marine chapter ships emerged as well, followed by a Fleet of Imperial Guard ships , the transmissions identified them as the Forces of the Scarus Sector._

_The mysterious ship, then did a massive loop above the now three way battle between Chaos, Tyranids and Orks, joined this new Allied Flotilla, and started towards our formation to join us._

_From its transmission we also deduced that besides paralyzing the enemy, bringing fresh troops, it also had the highly classified Horn of Plenty, which would supply us with food, and ease our logistics._

_At this, every man and woman gave a great cheer, the looks of despair was gone, and the shroud of darkest doubt and inevitable doom, was banished forever._

_Amongst the cheers and jubilations, which I can said without shame that I was the most enthusiastic, and bordering on unprofessional of all, Lord General Zyvan, the supreme commander of the Infantry, sent out a message requesting to speak with the leader of this blessed force, and we all waited for the response in bated breath and silence, wondering if not the Emperor himself brought this deliverance._

_The response, was closer to that then I would have thought, and for a moment I thought that I was still a part of the 597__th__, for as the blessed face of our savior, appeared on our pictscreen, my eyes widened with shock and elation, as the voice and appearance of our delivered smiled and spoke to us._

"_This is Ciaphas Cain of the Commissariat along with Admiral Bugler and Colonel Shrewd here to deliver aide to the Cadian relief force, sorry I'm late for the party"_

_Commissar Cain had arrived!_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter IV.

After finally, reaching our destination, and dropping off that accursed Horn of Plenty, which had brought nothing but plenty of trouble for me, I was finally feel safe, with a great Imperial Fleet between me and the enemy, or as safe as you can be, when you're in a system which has a Tyranid-Chaos-Ork salsa party going on in front of you, but I digress.

To my surprise, when I finally boarded the command ship, I was greeted by the two most senior officers of this task force, namely Zyvan, who was the commander of the Infantry Force here, and Admiral Benjamin, which was an old acquaintance, and friend of Zyvan now commanding the Fleet.

This seemed odd to me at first, and it was not the fact that I considered them unworthy for their positions, but there were many senior officers, much higher in rank than them, who should be in command.

"You can thank Bloody Abaddon for that, the bastard has gotten so good at these Crusades, that he managed to have a full score of high ranking officers, die in battle just trying to hold him off" Zyvan said bitterly as he spat out, some vile phlegm from his mouth, a clear indication of just what a toll this was taking on the general, a high ranking officer like that would never stoop so low, as to make such gestures, and it made me glad of that fact that I managed to put off coming to this accursed place, for so long.

"Admiral Quarren, also fell in battle, and I can tell you that was a dark day for us, but we continued to fight on!" Admiral Benjamin said trying to sound unaffected by the event, even thought his voice said otherwise.

"He is now with the Emperor, and his death will be avenged ten times fold" I replied, but not by me of course.

They both gave a nod of acknowledgment, as we made our way to the conference room, and as we arrived there, the first thing I noticed was the fact that everyone in the room felled silent and was gazing in my direction, with looks of admiration, and appreciation something which made me feel quite uncomfortable, but don't get me wrong, I like it when the various ladies of nobles, and commoner appraise me so, since it allows me good lodgings, fine food and wine, and good bed company, but when those gazes come from officers, it usually means that they have some dangerous mission in mind, and since these where the supreme commanders, you can tell why I was so nervous about this.

"Everyone let's get down do business" Zyvan said and we all took seat around a very large table, with a holographic projector in the middle.

"Our situation is at follows, currently the Chaos Fleet , is in a great struggle with the orks and Tyranids, thanks to the efforts of Commissar Cain here" Admiral Benjamin said and a round of whistles and cheers, came from those around "I was only doing my duty as a servant of the Emperor" I said spouting the same pious nonsense, which after so many years of repeating it, I was confused myself, on the level of sincerity that statement had, but it was what they were expecting me to say, and I was always a people person.

"Currently the enemy fleet is not a problem, but that could not last forever, case in point, our main concern must be the situation on the ground" the Admiral said and let General Zyvan have the floor.

"Thank you Admiral, the situation on Cadia is as follows, the majority of the surface has fallen, save for the Central Tower, the last hive city which still stands thanks to the efforts Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed, who is now trapped inside the Central Tower, so our priority must be to retake the planet, so seal of the Cadian Gate less the Forces of Chaos Breach it, that is the purpose of this meeting, so I would like any and all suggestions" Zyvan said and the debate followed, and as time went by, more and more ludicrous answer came, from outright charging into battle, from some Tallarn General, who confidently said that the Emperor would shield us and give us victory, though I suspect battling the Chaos Gods themselves, takes precedence over his or their followers struggle.

Another suggestion, was to simply drop a cometh on the surface and wipe them all out, this had mixed reactions from those gathered, on the one hand it would solve out problem in the short term, but in the long term, we would be faced with a desolated world, almost impossible to defend against any future chaos incursions.

"There might be a way to turn the tide" a voice which was more mechanical, than human said, and a Tec priest, in the most garish and decorative uniform I have ever seen, rose from his seat, put a mechanical tendril into a socket and made some new map appear, and as soon as it did, my palms started to itch, and I already knew of what was to happen, a lifetime of being forced by Amberley* into near suicidal missions for the Inquisition, had given me the experience to spot these situations.

_*Not true, the inquisition only seeks volunteers, to assist in their great duty to defend the Imperium, those who disagree will find themselves, executed without a chance for an appeal by the Inquisition._

"The Forces of Chaos have surrounded the Central Tower, and have fortified their positions on all sides, and destroyed almost everything that they could find, this is a great tragedy, but the Omnisiah seeing the great desolation being brought upon his sacred world, has given his faithful with this great gift" the Tech Priest, which I would later find out would be called Cardinal Efron, said as he pressed a button and a series of blue lines on the map.

"These are the cooling wents which, run beneath the surface of Cadia. Originally they were designed to be a series of underground tunnels, with the purpose to link and reinforce, each Hive City, sadly, the knowledge of their very existence was lost to the ravages of time, until recently when, during the attacks on the Great Tower, the long lost entrance has been rediscovered"

He said and every officer, in the room, fell up on this new information like a pack of hungry wolves, and no sooner than you can say 'For the Emperor' battle plan was made.

"This is what we will do, we will reinforce the Hive City, with everything we have, we will do it openly so the enemy can concentrate his forces, on the Central Tower, once on the ground, we will send a task force beneath the surface, through those cooling tunnels, to come and attack the enemy from behind, and catch him off guard" Zyvan said, and at this I quickly realized that my hopes of performing my duty to the Emperor by sitting in a rear echelon position, where dashed as I saw Zyvan's gaze land on me.

"The underground maneuver will require someone who knows a thing or two about cave fighting and navigation, you know anyone who is good at that Commissar Cain?" he added with a smirk, which suggested that he had no doubt, that I would want the job for myself, which just goes to show you that, even the best soldiers, have their dumb moments.

"Of course I know, someone who is brave, cunning, fearless, and mighty in battle" I said and paused for dramatic effect before adding" "But he's not here, so I guess you'll have to settle for me" that statement being the very few times in my life I had been honest about myself, which rewarded me with a roar of laughter from those gathered and further proving, that the reason why so many people can't accept truth's, and our happy with blatant lies.

And so, after that I along with Jurgen prepared to meet the force which I will be guiding trough those tunnel's.

Once we were introduced, I was pleasantly surprised, that the commanders, where the very cream of the crop, there where Sororitas, and Adept Astartes, chapter commanders, and Colonel and Brigadier General's from units, who had made a name for themselves in this war, by namely managing to survive, long enough to say, I'm alive, and so as I made my way down the rows of the align troops, each one of them presented themselves and their forces.

"Colonel Titus, of the Ultramarines"

"Gabriel Angelos, of the Blood Ravens"

"Beneth Agherta of the Blood Rose Sororitas"

"Colonel Alem Mahat, of the Tallarn Desert Raiders 793rd" that particular colonel, had a weird look in his eye of almost orgasmic glee and reverie when I looked upon him and saluted, the same could be said with the majority of the Tallarn's, which disturbed me greatly, although why was he so happy to see me I never found out*, but I made a note to stay away from the, the last thing I needed, was some Emperor botherer's infatuation with me

*_Cain forgot, that years ago after banishing the daemones Emili, that particular Tallarn soldier was present, as was so impressed, with Cain that he founded the Imperial Sect which worshipped him as a manifestation of the Emperor's will, suffice to say, that Cain's arrival, with the Horn of Plenty, and Orks and Tyranids to through at the Forces of Chaos, and help turn the tide, was to him, the equivalent of a second coming, and events that follow would only reinforce that_

So as I went through the high ranking officers, it was with great shock, that I found Valhalans among them, and with even more surprise, I saw three faces, which I had not seen in over a century, for a few moments I must have looked like a complete tosser, with my mouth wide open, and my eye bulging out, for before me, stood Kasteen, Broklav, and to my utter astonishment and horror Jenit Sulla, now a lady General.

"The Valhalan 597th is at your disposal commissar" Sulla said she gave a salute and the whole regiment gave out great cheer, which made the seemingly superhuman Space Marines, and tougher than nails Sororitas jump back startled.

I picked up my jaw from the ground, I could hear over the cheer, the shouting of something like 'Uncle Cain', or other nonsense like that, and upon a closer searching of my memory, I recalled, that many of the 'fraternizations' between the man and the women of the 597th had resulted in a few indiscretions, which were solved with a discreet chapel man, had fixed, I also recalled, that for some strange reason they decided I should be the godfather of their children, as to why would anyone want a scoundrel like me for that I will never know* and it seemed that these indiscretions, had followed their parents as career soldiers, in the guard.

As the cheer quieted down, and I made my way towards where I thought I heard 'Uncle Cain' come from, and to my astonishment, it came from a company of troops, which on their arms, where armbands, which had the inscriptions of 'Cain's Bastards' on them, I must admit that my years, of let's call it putting a great deal of moral into the noble and beautiful maidens of the various worlds I served, would indicate that, but I was always careful, I maybe many things, but I am well versed in knowledge of nighttime activities**.

_*Once more Cain belittles his own accomplishments, the Valhalan 597__th__ during his tenure and even after he left, is still considered on of the finest guards regiments in the segmentum, if not the Imperium, and a great deal of this must be attributed to his guidance and leadership._

_**I can vouch for that._

"Well, it's good to be back, not let's go, and remind the Forces of Chaos, why you do not mess with the Emperor" I said, and every soldier cheered, as we where led to shuttles, and dropped off on the surface.

And despite the itching of my palms, and my experience with underground caves, which at this point made me be sure of the fact that, my bad habit of discovering Necrons, Tyranids, and all manners of monstrosities, which the warp, spits out, things would turn out less of a mess than they usually do for me, but if I'd know what I'd go through after that, I'd have said, damn the future, we won't be there, told or threatened Zyvan to blow up the planet, and be done with it, with the whole damn, thrust me on this after all, would I lie to you?


End file.
